Kinder Morgan pipeline poses ‘unacceptable risk’: Vancouver mayor

The Canadian Press/JONATHAN HAYWARDAn oil tanker is guided by tug boats as it goes under the Lions Gate Bridge at the mouth of Vancouver Harbour on May 5, 2012.

Tanker traffic from a bigger pipeline presents an “unacceptable risk” to Vancouver even though the proposed infrastructure is 10 kilometres outside of city limits, Mayor Gregor Robertson said Tuesday.

Kinder Morgan’s proposal to twin its Trans Mountain pipeline to carry diluted bitumen from Alberta to Burnaby – a plan that would boost the number of tankers in the Burrard Inlet to 34 per month from five – could be “devastating” for the city if the oil spills, Robertson said.

The mayor put forward a motion for Vancouver to apply to be an intervenor during the National Energy Board hearings on the expansion proposal, expected to be filed this month.